Happy Pancake Day!

I’m always delighted when Pancake Day comes around, this year especially so as I have a proper American pancake skillet. No excuse for rubbish pancakes! If you are at all into pancake making, I can’t recommend one enough. It’s particularly fantastic for making crepes with – so much so I am now tempted to buy one of those little wooden things you see the folk in crepe huts using to spread out the batter!

Of course to avoid rubbish pancakes you need a fool proof recipe and this year I decided to give Chef Chris Thompson’s method a go. He is Head Chef at The Pantry, a lovely little cafe on the way to Stockbridge in Edinburgh. You can read my review of The Pantry here.

In case you haven’t made pancakes before, it’s as simple as mixing everything together in a bowl! When following recipes I often find that the quantity of milk can leave your mixture too runny, and I really like Chef Thompson’s description – I knew exactly what consistency I was looking for and I just added the milk bit by bit until my mixture was similar to “lightly whipped double cream”. I made sure my skillet very hot and spooned on a ladle full of mixture. It didn’t take long at all (1 min at most) to see little bubbles forming on the top of my pancake – time to flip! The same amount of time on the other side and et voila, pancakes are ready.

Happy Pancake Day!

As you can see, for my topping I stuck to Nutella (in my eyes, classic and delicious), but if you are feeling more adventurous Chef Thompson suggests Banoffee Split pancakes, look delicious. Recipe below. Enjoy pancake lovers!

Chef Chris Thompson’s Banoffee Split Pancakes

Bannoffee Split Pancake Topping

To a heavy bottomed pan add 75g of caster sugar, once the caster sugar has melted down and taken a lovely golden brown colour add 75 ml of double or whipping cream, keep on stirring until you have a thick brown butterscotch sauce, throw in half of the banana and set aside

Whip up some double cream and toast off some flaked hazlenuts (any nut will do)

On top of the pancakes add alternate pieces of sliced banana and butterscotch banana, top with whipped cream and drizzle some sweat, unctuous sauce over the top and scatter toasted nuts on top…enjoy